For the love of spinning

Helen, challenged us in the NETA-SpinningForShipsProject to show our wheels and to tell our stories.

I’ve been a knitaholic and fiber lover for many years now and about three years ago the siren song of spinning started calling to me.  So I searched and found a weekend learn to spin work shop at the Fiber Loft close to my home, so I signed up.  Ann was a wonderful teacher and had us spinning (in the grease) in no time.  I was totally enamoured with the whole process.   At that time I wasn’t in the position to buy a wheel, so I rented one from the Fiber Loft for a month.  But by the time the month was over I knew that I had to have a wheel of my very own.

Since this was a pretty big investment for me, I started looking, on the web, locally, I even drooled over the various models of wheel they have a Halcyon when I was vacationing on Hermit Island near Bath.

I wanted something that was easy for beginners, didn’t take up a lot of space, and had the ability to grow as my abilities improved.  After lots of research and checking out various wheels, I finally fell in love with the Lendrum DT.  I have not been disappointed.  She may not be as pretty as some wheels, but she’s a durable workhorse and she spins like a dream.  Adding a WooLee Winder this year was just icing on the cake. 

Here’s my love.

She travels with me to SPA, to spinning bees, and spinning nights.  She really gets around.

Currently I am spinning some lovely brown corriedale for the NETA-SpinningForShipsProject.  I’m on my second bobbin and should be plying this weekend.

This is going to make a lovely square or two for the afghan.  I think I’m on target for the correct wpi (at least I hope I am!)  If you are interested in knitting a square for the project from this let me know.

Pictures to share and Jazz Night at the Brush

I have lots of pictures to share today for change.

First up my Socks That Rock, Rockin’ Sock Club Sock.  This is my first time participating in a sock club and my first time with STR yarn.  This is there medium weigh sock yarn in the colorway Monsoon.  They really have high quality yarn and there colorways are unique and beautiful.  Now I probably would never have picked this particular blend of colors, but it grew on me.  I really liked the way the colors spiraled and pooled as I knitted this sock.  Which brings me to another confession.  With the yarn the sock club also sends a pattern to knit up in this yarn.  I started the pattern and got to the first set of cables, and this pattern just wasn’t doing it for me, so I frogged the sock and ended up knitting just a plain stockinette, and I was very pleased with the way they turned out.  So with out further ado…

TaDa!

 I know the photo is lousy, but it does show of the cool swirling pools and it does represent the actual color way pretty well.

 I have also been spinning.  See!

This is some of the grey shetland I received in trade for my plying head.  It did have some bits of hay but not much and it did seem a bit stiff but not scratchy.   Then I washed it to set the twist.  The water was pretty dirty so I rinsed it a few times then let it dry.  It’s wonderfully soft and just beautiful!  I couldn’t be happier with the results.  this is approx 12-14 wpi and about 600+ yards.  I still have a bit more to spin up, see!

This the box that just keeps filling up with roving. 

I’m also spinning for one of the NETA afghans, but I am working on another blog entry to share all that..

Oh! tonight, if you are in the neighborhood and in the mood to hear some great Jazz.  Check out this!

Jazz Night at the Brush Art Gallery

 

I’ll be there (with my knitting).  Hope some of you can make it.  Oh and BTW, the $8 covers all the wine and appetizers you want!  Such a deal!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hippo Birdie, Two Ewes

Friday we belatedly celebrated the birthday of a good friend and knitter extraordinaire Lucia.  Her hubby secretly planned a dinner outing with various knitting friends.  It was wonderful to meet some new knitting ladies and to share a bottle of wine and lovely dinner at Pappa Razzi’s.

It was hard to decided on the daily specials but I went with the seafood (mussels, calamari, scallops, shrimp) over linguine and I was not disappointed.  At the end of dinner we did whip out our knitting much to the amusement of our server.

This was the kick off to a partying weekend, who knew?!

Saturday DD insisted that she needed to go to the Mall and could not wait until tomorrow when I go knitting up in Nashua at Border’s.  I had to go grocery shopping anyhoo, so off we went but only after DD completed her chores.  And since I had a deadline to leave for a party that night – the long she took, the less time she had at the Mall.

Of course we ended up being late and I still had to make something to bring to the party (my infamous wings were out – not enough time) so I made some yummy stuffed mushrooms and head off to Nancy and Bob’s.  I ended up leaving early because it was SNOWING! hard and the roads were getting sloppy, so I headed on.

Sunday, chores then off to Border’s to Knit with blogless Karen who knits amazing children’s Aran sweaters and sells them at craft shows and Jennifer was there too.  I got to show off my STR sock club socks and I actually did take some photos, I just managed to leave the camera at home.  Soon, I promise.

I also started knitting Fetching from Knitty.com using some lovely handspun Merino and Angora and I would have had them completed too, except I ran out of yarn just as I reached the spot I knit the waste yarn for the thumb.  Buggers!  I haven’t decided what to do yet , I may just finish them off with something different and unique.

I was so disgusted I started a sock from some of my hand dyed superwash merino.  It’s navy, purple and turquoise.  It’s dark and matches my mood.

I wasn’t really in a bad mood when I first started this post… but….

Just before lunch by boss called me in to his office  (I knew raises and bonus’ were coming in this weeks pay).  I did not get a raise.  I mean seriously, I’m in the top three most of the time meeting my numbers, etc.  I have good customer satisfaction scores… the problem, my company’s policy.  Everyone has a Job Classification Number, and there is a salary range for that classification.  The only problem is that once you get above the half way mark they stop giving you Merit raises.  I lost it.  I realize my boss’ hands are tied, but he’s the one that gets to face my wrath over this stupid policy.

I know it is obvious that this company wants their senior employees to leave.  They don’t care about retaining the knowledge, they just want you out so they can bring in cheap college students fresh out of school.

So I want to know what the hel is my incentive to produce for this company anymore and why it wouldn’t just behoove me to be a big fu*ckup so that they give me the 6 months pay and take the layoff?  I think it’s quiet clear they are done with me and I guess I am now done with them.  They apparently do not appreciate my efforts.

Now I just need to find out what I want to do with the rest of my life and how I can get paid for it along with medical and dental coverage.

Oh and the bonus – we are only getting 50% of what they put us in for.  WTF?!  I’m just done.   I have 7 more months to make my ten years and to get that extra vacation, but I think it’s time to just walk away from that.

My bad…

Well I just blew my modified knit from my stash promise.  Geeze you guys (and gals) are such ENABLERS!  SOMEONE, I won’t mention names posted that there was a sale at Knit Happens, so of course I had to check it out, thinking that I would easily resist the temptation.  I mean a yarn sale is a yarn sale right?  NOT!

With Cherry Tree Hill Sock yarn at half price, how can a girl resist?  Cascade 220 at less than $4 a skein?!  I was helpless. 

I did finish my socks knit from the Socks that Rock Club yarn Monsoon.  I did not follow the pattern provided, as it just did not sing to me.  Instead I did my standard stockinette, with a slip stitch heel.  The colors spiraled nicely and I was very happy with the results.  Pictures to follow as I forgot to grab my camera today.

I also finished spinning and plying approx. 600 yards of the grey Shetland.  There was a bit of chaff in it and it feels a bit stiff, but I haven’t soaked it to set the twist yet, and I suspect it will bloom and soften up nicely.  I still have a lot more to spin.  It appears to be a bottomless box of roving   I need to check the wpi after it drys but right now it’s approx. 16 wpi.  I am planning on knitting a traditional Shetland shawl with this and I think it will be perfect.  I will probably have enough to do a pair or two of sock as well.

I also started spinning the brown corridale.  It’s really clean and very soft.  I’m going to shoot for 12 wpi (worsted weight) so I can submit it and use it for one of the NETA SHIPS afghans to be raffled off next year.  I looks like it will be lovely too.

Pictures will follow

A cold in ma nose

One of the ‘other’ things you can get with wild weather changes and ginormous swings in temperature, is a cold, a bad cold, a really lousy, my head feels like it’s in a bucket head cold. Blech.

I felt the first tingle as I slip and slid on my drive home Friday in the nasty nor’easter.  Fortunately DDs play had been canceled that night so I was able to put on my jammies, fill the hot water bottle, take a cuppa tea and went directly to bed.

When I awoke, there was 14 inches of fresh snow and mounds made by plows everywhere.  What happened to spring?!

The cold was now well entrenched but I did have to get up to drop DD off 2 hours prior to the opening of the play.  This forced me into a hot steamy shower that I loathed to get out of.   I dragged myself off to the play with my STR socks in progress.  I wish I could knit in the dark, but at least I got a few rounds in waiting for the lights to go down and during intermission.

Now I must confess that I loathe the play Carousel, I hate the music, the story line (carny seduces young innocent, beats her and then after botched robbery attempt kills himself and leaves young innocent alone, pregnant and destitute)  But being the good mom, I managed to stick it out in-spite of my horrible head cold.  I will say however, there are really a lot of talented kids at the school and that made the night well worth it, but I couldn’t wait to get back to my bed.

Sunday the production was earlier and the rest of the family and a few friends were coming so I drugged myself accordingly (I love Alka-seltzer Cold Plus) and it was off to sit through the play once more.

Alas there was the cast party and cannot tell you how good that bed felt when I finally crawled in around 11:30 last night.  The sun seemed to rise much faster today but I did drag my sorry butt to work.

I did not get much knitting done this weekend.  I find when my head is full of snot I cannot seem to concentrate on anything to do with knitting – even stockinette in the round.  So instead I sat and spun the lovely grey shetland fleece.  It’s going to be lovely knit into a shawl.

At least tomorrow is a work from home day and I plan to do very little of the work part.

You just gotta love New England weather

Only in New England could it be 70F one day and within less than 48 hours below freezing and a Nor’ easter raging outside and the weather man predicting a foot of snow.  Oh ya and the Vernal Equinox is just a few days away.

So as the saying goes if you live in New England and don’t like the weather, wait five minutes and it will change.

On my way home from Wednesday night knitting at the Java Room it started to sprinkle out.  I turned on my windshield wipers, only to have the drivers side wiper arm fly off the side and wrap around to the driver side door.  When I got home I tried to figure out what was wrong and the other side stopped working.  Knowing that there was a storm predicted I headed off to the dealers on Thursday to get the wipers fixed.  It turned out to be loose screw… who knew?

Once DD calls that she’s safe at home, I’m going to head out out of here too.

What’s up for the weekend

Just in case you have nothing planned and are in the area.  DD will be in this production this coming weekend.

  

The Groton High School Players are proud to announce their upcoming musical production:

  

C A R O U S E L

to be presented at the Groton Performing Arts Center on

March 16, 17, and 18

Music and Lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II

Named BEST MUSICAL OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY by Time Magazine, 1999

In a Maine coastal village toward the end of the 19th century, the swaggering, carefree carnival barker, Billy Bigelow, captivates and marries the naive mill worker, Julie Jordan. Billy loses his job just as he learns that Julie is pregnant and, desperately intent upon providing a decent life for his family, he is coerced into being an accomplice to a robbery. Caught in the act and facing the certainty of prison, he takes his own life and is sent “up there.” Billy is allowed to return to earth for one day and, time being what it is “up there,” fifteen years have passed and he now encounters the teenage daughter he never knew. She is a lonely, friendless child, her father’s reputation as a thief and bully having haunted her throughout her young life. How Billy instills in both the child and her mother a sense of hope and dignity is a dramatic testimony to the power of love. It’s easy to understand why, of all the shows they created, CAROUSEL was Rodgers & Hammerstein’s personal favorite.

Show times are Friday, 7:00 pm, Saturday, 7:00 pm and Sunday matinee, 4:00 pm

Ticket prices are $10 General Admission, $8 Seniors and $5 Students

The Sun is out, the sky is blue

I think Spring is just around the corner.  But having lived in New England for so many years I know there is always the possibility of a Spring surprise.

Now for some photos that I keep meaning to post

First the Kissell Electric Spinner

The wooden box is approx. 11 1/2″ X 11 1/2″ x 9 1/2″

 

Inside there are 5 bobbins, instructions and the electric spinner

 

I even have photos of FOs both knitting and spinning

First my finished knitted object

Ene’s Scarf

Spunky Eclectic Laceweight Merino

Finished Spinning object

 

 I dyed the merino roving with blue and pink then spun and plied it.  I have approx. 214 yds.

Rich or Famous?

Which would you rather be?I was a bit depressed to wake up this morning to find I had not won the Mega Millions.  I guess that means I won’t be retiring and buying that sheep and alpaca farm anytime soon.  Sigh.Oh and I’m not famous, nor would I really want to be, but one of my Border’s knitting buds got her 15 minutes of fame!  Bloggless Abby was interviewed for the Nashua Telegram about our knitting group here.   Abby you really do need to get a blog.  This is so cool!

Last night I finished knitting and blocked Ene’s Scarf.  I’m actually wearing it today.  Sorry no pictures yet.  Once I got started on this pattern it was very easy to follow and a quick knit.  I will definitely knit this pattern again.I also started the socks from the Socks that Rock Club.  I’ve decided I’m not crazy about the sock pattern provided, so I’m ripping out and doing my own thing.  I hope that doesn’t break any of the club rules.  Oh well, I never was a very good rule follower anyhoo.  Just call me the sock rebel.   I really do like the colors of the yarn.  (no pictures yet, as I don’t want to be spoiler for those that haven’t received theirs kits)

Tonight half of the Java Room knitters are off to a Celtics game.  I really wanted to go, but unfortunately DD is in the last 2 weeks of play rehearsals, which means I have to pick her up at 8pm.  Too late to ask Grandma to do it so I guess I’ll just go to hang with the knitters that didn’t go and head out early to pick up DD.

TGI Rainy Work From Home Friday

Today I am working from home – it started out sleeting then turned quickly to rain.  I have a big pond in front of my door where it’s flooded but at least it’s not coming into the basement.

Nor did it deter the UPS or FED-EX guys from my stash enhancement deliveries.  Neither delivered is a breach of the cannot-purchase-stash-enhancers-until-I-knit multiple-projects-from-my-current-stash-non-new-years-resolution rules.

The first to arrive was a lovely box of fiber I traded for my Lendrum Jumbo Plying Head.  For the flyer I got a box stuffed with:

1 lb 2oz grey Shetland
about 1 lb brown corriedale
about 1 lb grey border leister cross
and about 2-3 oz of merino roving that is not commercial top, but from a local herd up in Wisconsin.

It’s wonderful!

Shortly afterwards the Fed-Ex guy waded through the pond to deliver the long anticipated and pre-stash-non-resolution purchased Socks That Rock Club’s first installment.  I will not post pics yet since I don’t want to be a spoiler for those that read and haven’t received it yet.  I will only say it’s fabulous!

Oh and I also finished up my taxes and got those in so I hope to see that refund soon!

So Thank Goddess It’s a damp rainy work from home Friday – I can work on my almost finish Ene’s Shawl and cast-on the Socks That Rock! oh ya!